Sovereign of the Ashes

Sein was no longer the inexperienced mage who had just ascended to Rank Four.

Empowered by his special magic rod and the even more powerful Faceless Mask, he could now unleash forbidden-level spells faster than ever before.

The searing elemental energy from the Star Core spared him the need to draw power from the surrounding environment.

With abundant mana and focus, Sein arrived at Radbow Plane ready to show its low-level creatures what “power” truly meant!

A crimson pillar of energy erupted from his magic rod, shooting straight toward the heart of the plane.

The Faceless Mask’s analytical ability allowed him to pinpoint the nearest and most critical planar node with precision.

To destroy Radbow, one only needed to strike directly at the navel of this low-level plane.

The native creatures of Radbow likely knew this. Having betrayed the Magus Alliance, they must have realized that the Magus Civilization would seek nothing less than their complete annihilation.

Hence, their legions had fortified their defenses most heavily around the plane’s navel.

The intensity of elemental energy unleashed by a Magus World mage was the most obvious measure of their power.

In Magus World, knowledge ultimately defined a mage’s strength—but to otherworldly creatures and unfamiliar Magus knights, such depth could not be read from appearance alone.

Sein began casting a forbidden spell high above in Radbow’s sky with astonishing speed, his gathering magic thundering like a declaration to the billions of beings below.

Two allied foreign gods elsewhere on the plane exchanged uneasy glances before looking toward the source in the sky.

At that moment, both deities were engaged on other fronts within Radbow, each commanding their own legions.

One was a mid-stage Rank Four deity resembling a giant snow silkworm, hailing from the Fadingfrost World. It had been dispatched by the Magus Alliance to aid in the war effort.

The other, slightly weaker one, was a Rank Four creature resembling a lizard. It stood upright on two legs, leaning on a green wooden staff. Rumor had it that traces of dragon blood flowed through its veins.

“This mage from the Magus Civilization who just descended on Radbow... He seems even stronger than Master Barron,” the Lizard Elder murmured, craning its neck toward the sky.

The Magus Civilization had dispatched these two Rank Four beings from the alliance to Radbow World not only because of their unique constitutions and mastery over law power that made them well-suited to withstand the plane’s intense radiation, but also because both were close friends of the peak Rank Four Summoner, Barron.

The Magus Civilization demonstrated a notable degree of thoughtfulness when assigning alliance members to battlefronts.

Once on the battle fronts, most allied combatants would usually find Magus World powerhouses they knew stationed nearby.

This setup did more than improve coordination—it also helped maintain morale, giving allied races the impression that the Magus Civilization did not see them merely as expendable cannon fodder.

In addition, the high-ranking Magus World mages stationed across nearby fronts often offered limited but meaningful assistance to the foreign deities they had befriended.

When the severely wounded Summoner finally withdrew, his two allied deities had been distressed for quite some time.

They feared that the next powerhouse the Magus Civilization sent to replace Master Barron might treat them with indifference, or worse, use them as expendable pawns.

That concern was not unfounded. The Magus Civilization almost always put mages in command, with knights serving beneath them.

Even if they were on friendly terms with the Rank Four knight Tychus, who had been fighting on Radbow Plane, it would not have made much difference.

Now that a new Rank Four mage from Magus World had arrived, he held the authority to issue orders to Tychus.

For instance, upon arriving on Radbow, Sein immediately dismissed Tychus’ proposal for a more “cautious advance” and instead ordered a full-scale assault!

Still, for the two allied deities, the stronger the Magus World mages sent here, the better.

It was always cooler to stand in the shade of a bigger tree. The sooner the war for Radbow ended, the better it would be for everyone.

Under Sein’s command, the Magus Civilization’s legions surrounding Radbow World launched a sweeping offensive.

The two native Rank Four radioactive creatures of the plane could no longer stand by and do nothing.

While urgently pleading with the Grand Eye Demon World for reinforcements, they braced themselves and joined the fray.

These native Rank Fours had bizarre, almost abstract forms.

One resembled a metallic-scaled reptile, with over ten arms and countless eyes. Its sparse fur was the result of the dense radioactive energy coursing through its body.

On the other side stood a jet-black, hairy sphere. Unlike the reptile, it had no limbs or eyes, only a dense coat of thick, bristling hair. Each strand was like a sharpened black needle that looked painfully prickly to the touch.

Neither of the two Rank Four creatures from Radbow World was at full strength when they finally faced Sein.

The relentless attacks from the Magus Civilization’s legions, combined with the damage inflicted by the peak Rank Four Summoner before his withdrawal, had left both native powerhouses utterly drained.

Compared to the Magus Alliance, the Grand Eye Demon World and its vassal planes were like a fragile egg.

The only reason that egg had not yet been cracked open was not because the Grand Eye Demon World was particularly tough, but because the Magus Civilization had barely spared it a glance until now.

Besides, the defensive stance adopted by the Grand Eye Demon World and its vassal planes made it difficult for the Magus Civilization legions to wipe them out completely.

So far, most battles in the star domains surrounding the Grand Eye Demon World had remained contained within their own territories.

Except for the early stages of the conflict, when the Grand Eye Demon World’s forces caught the Magus Civilization off guard, the Magus Civilization had dominated almost every engagement since.

As the two Rank Four radiation creatures were dragged into the fight, a third hostile entity within Radbow World remained motionless.

It was a grotesque Eye Demon with deep crimson pupils and countless tentacles dangling from beneath its massive eyeball.

The fact that the Grand Eye Demon World had evolved into a large plane spoke volumes about its superior evolutionary system, one that surpassed typical medium-sized or small planes.

Among beings of the same rank, Eye Demons feared no one—not even those from Magus World, their former ruling plane.

Like Magus World, the Eye Demon World shared a defining trait: they had long abandoned physical defense, pouring every bit of evolutionary potential into pure offense.

This made the Eye Demons creatures with high offense but low defense.

Some had even developed powers beyond their innate Evil Eye Beam, gaining mastery over illusions, bindings, or curses.

Before it turned against the Magus Civilization, the Grand Eye Demon World had been one of the most popular allied planes among the Magus World spellcasters.

Many mages traveled there solely to collect rare Eye Demon specimens for research.